Message #12885

[Bianca]

THE RIDDLE OF HOUDINI                                                                     continued



Oursler was an intimate friend of Houdini, and he has allowed me to quote some
of his experiences:



"You know him as well as I do.  You knew the immense vanity of
the man.  You know that he loved to be important.  My experience
with him for the last three months of his life was most peculiar.

He would call me on the telephone at seven o'clock in the morning
and he would be in a quarrelsome mood.  He would talk for an hour,
telling me how important he was, and what a great career he was
making.  In his voice was a hysterical, almost feminine, note of re-
bellion, as if his hands were beating against an immutable destiny.

In all these cases Houdini portrayed to me a clear sense of impend-
ing doom.  This is not an impression which I have received subse-
quent to his death.  But I commented upon it at the time.  I believe
that Houdini sensed the coming of his death, but did not know that
it meant death.

He didn't know what it meant, but he hated it and his soul screamed
out in indignation."